Jeremiah Jenne

Barbarians at the Gate x China Books Review: From Heaven Lake Before he became an award-winning novelist, the Indian writer Vikram Seth was an exchange student in China. In the 1980s, he traveled overland from Nanjing to Delhi.

Alexander Boyd of @chinabooksreview.com joins me on a special crossover episode of Barbarians at the Gate to discuss Vikram Seth's 1983 travelogue, From Heaven Lake.

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November 13, 1760: Birthday of The Jiaqing Emperor. Inherited bloated bureaucracy, several rebellions, rampant corruption, and his dad's "close friend" Heshen. Tried reform and got "the beginning of the end" label for his trouble. We historians can be picky bastards, can't we?

this entry in @jeremiahjenne.com’s Archive project is a gem.

Before he became an award-winning novelist, the Indian writer Vikram Seth was an exchange student in China. In the 1980s, he traveled overland from Beijing to Delhi.

Read @jeremiahjenne.com latest Archive Pick: chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/06/h...

Read @jeremiahjenne.com latest Archive Pick, "From Heaven Lake," a travelogue by the acclaimed Indian novelist Vikram Seth's recounting his overland journey from Nanjing to New Delhi via Tibet in 1982: chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/11/h...

On this day in 1866, Sun Yat-sen was born in Guangdong. The PRC and Taiwan might tussle over his legacy, but he’s one of the few figures in Modern Chinese history routinely honored on both sides of the Strait.

My latest for the @chinabooksreview.com

Compass Dispatches: Eiger Dreams and Overpriced Cocoa in the Swiss Alps Of humans, heights and the reliably beautiful but historically tragic alpine vistas of Central Switzerland

In this week’s Compass Dispatch, your correspondent visits the Swiss Alps and ponders the relationship between mountains and the people who climb them. Also cocoa. Lots of cocoa.

bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

Stop Quizzing Me, I’m on Vacation Some guides think engagement means turning the experience into a pub quiz. Here’s why a good tour should be a conversation, not a test.

After one of my last walking tours in Geneva, a guest told me that she really enjoyed the walk because I “didn’t quiz the guests.” I know what she meant, and it’s a peeve of mine as well.

Let me explain.

jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/stop-quizz...

In this archival edition of Barbarians at the Gate, we examine the 1860 destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing and how history and narrative are used and misused today.

jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/the-destru...

On the latest episode of Barbarians at the Gate, we look at the 15th-century voyages of the Chinese admiral Zheng He. It’s giraffes, medieval globalization, and what might have been if Zheng He had decided Europe was worth the trip.

jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/barbarians...

Ibn Battuta Taking the long way from Turkey to India

Link to episode: bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/ibn-battut...

Literary Chinese for bust-ass dynasties:

鋪眉苫眼早三公
Cozen. Flatter. Ingratiate --
The Three High Offices of state.

(from 譏時 'The Times We Live In' by Zhang Mingshan 張鳴善, fl. 14th c.)

Talking about Sima Qian with Alexander Boyd leads to the uncomfortable realization that a belief in cosmic consequences for bad leadership feels like a quaint notion in 2025.

Link to the full episode: jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/barbarians...

In this special episode of Barbarians at the Gate, I’m joined by Alexander Boyd of China Books Review to discuss Sima Qian, The Records of the Grand Historian, and what it means to speak truth to power.

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William Adams didn’t set out to become the first Englishman in Japan, a confidant of a warlord, or the inspiration for James Clavell’s Shōgun. It just all rather happened.

Link to this week's Compass Dispatch Newsletter:

bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

The Three Pillars of Great Guiding Studying a lot of facts is important, but so is the ability to curate that information and deliver a compelling narrative.

After years teaching and leading educational travel in Asia, I moved to Geneva and had an existential crisis about medieval Swiss politics. What I learned about communication after 20+ years of making history interesting to strangers:

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Antifa? You mean Wanyan *Aguda?* Founding emperor of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, and ancestor of the Manchus??

Media outlets that fail to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s upstanding behavior and model lifestyle can expect swift prosecution.

by Pam Bondi

This week's Compass Dispatch includes observations from Sicily on the intersection of film tourism and historical reality. The Godfather locations reveal how Hollywood mythology can overshadow complex local histories.

Also mosquitoes.

bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

The sinologist David Moser talks about moving to China in 1989, his first appearance on the Spring Festival Gala in 1999, and learning xiangsheng from the masters.

Listen to the episode of Peking Hotel: chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/16/p...

Free for members of RASBJ; 50 RMB for members of RAS branches in London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and members of the Yale community. 100 RMB for non-members.

rasbj.glueup.cn/event/the-so...

I will be moderating Yale's Prof. Valerie Hansen on "The Song Dynasty (960-1276): Was China Modern Before Europe?" Why did historians see Song China as early modern centuries before Europe hit that phase? Wed Sept 17, 8-9pm Beijing | 1-2pm UK | 8-9am EST.

Compass Dispatches: Budapest A brief missive from the banks of the Danube, where your correspondents contemplate the fine art of graceful deterioration

Pest is your great-aunt who started vaping at age 68 and still outdrinks rugby players at her local. Buda is the great-aunt who summers in Margate with her cats and her collection of Royal Worcester. We picked a side.

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Sima Qian: Records of the Grand Historian | China Books Review History is supposedly written by the victors. Sima Qian, author of China's original historical classic, showed it could also be written by the condemned.

The Shiji abounds with examples of corrupt, venal, or stupid rulers getting cosmic comeuppance. In today's timeline, it's almost quaint to believe in a universal order that punishes terrible leaders.

Read more in my latest for @chinabooksreview.com

chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/09/s...

History is supposedly written by the victors. Sima Qian, author of China's original historical classic, showed it could also be written by the condemned.

Read Jeremiah Jenne's essay on the urtext for Chinese history, the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian: chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/09/s...

Are the A's, Rockies, and White Sox enough of an argument that American sports leagues should adopt relegation?

And not just in baseball. I'm all in on having the most recent edition of the New England Patriots justify their spot in the NFL by making them beat Ohio State twice in a season.

Every traveler shares one universal experience, regardless of era: digestive challenges far from home. Our latest newsletter dives into how archaeologists track ancient journeys through the "evidence" left behind. (1/2)

Ok its ‘feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site’.

Does technology enhance language learning or is it cheating? In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, David and Jeremiah consider the evolution of digital aids to studying Chinese from looking up radicals in paper dictionaries to Pleco to AI.

jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/ai-laoshi-...